Last night I had the opportunity to chat with the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) China Bureau Chief, Jonathan Cheng, about some of the geopolitics surrounding the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
One of the fascinating things about multilateral development banks is that they simultaneously enable cooperation between competing powers while also advancing the strategic interests of shareholders (and particularly their leading shareholders). For the AIIB, it is China’s interests that are foremost advanced, yet this has not deterred many other states from engaging – including India, the UK and Australia. Indeed, China’s rival power India is both the AIIB’s second-largest shareholder and its largest recipient of funding. Jonathan captures these, and other, complexities well.
WSJ is a paid-subscriber service, but those with subscriptions can access the full article here: China-Backed Infrastructure Bank Seeks to Win Over Countries With Western-Style Approach
For those without subscriptions, I offer a few key sections of the article below. For a longer analysis of these ideas, you can also read a recent chapter of mine here: Rethinking Multilateralism in Foreign Aid Beyond the Neoliberal Hegemony